EVANSVILLE - Looking to spend a long week in southern Illinois, the University of Evansville baseball team opens the postseason at the 2021 MVC Championship against No. 6 seed Illinois State at 2:30 PM on Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium in Carbondale, Ill.
 

No. 7 Evansville vs. No. 6 Illinois State | May 25
Date | Time	Tues., May 25 | 2:30 PM
Location	Carbondale, Ill.
Site	Itchy Jones Stadium
May 25	No. 7 Evansville vs. No. 6 Illinois State
Follow Along	Live Stats | ESPN+ | WJPS
Evansville	Baseball Site | Twitter | Schedule Poster | Game Notes

Previewing the Matchup: Illinois State

• The Aces and Sycamores revive a rivalry that has been contested 123 times.
• Illinois State holds a 69-54 advantage in the series, include capturing the series this season, 3-1, in Normal.
• The last time the Aces and Redbirds met in the MVC Championship came on May 26, 2016, when Evansville captured a 4-3 win over Illinois State, scoring a run in the bottom of the 10th to advance.
• Evansville is eyeing its first MVC Championship win since 2017 when the Aces defeated Bradley, 12-2, in Springfield, Mo.
• Evansville has earned at least a split of its last three series with splits against SIU and Indiana State and a 3-1 series win over Valparaiso.

Tanner Reaches 30 Homers

• With two home runs in the weekend series over Indiana State, Craig entered an elite club of Aces.
• Craig now sits at 30 career home runs, becoming just the fifth Evansville player to reach the mark.
• Craig is eight home runs away from the all-time career record set by Jeff Starks in 1982 with 38.

Troy Enters an Elite Club

• With a base-hit on Saturday, redshirt senior Troy Beilsmith joined Evansville's 200 Hit Club.
• Beilsmith became the first Ace since Ryan Kaczmarski in 2016 and the 27th in program history to reach the mark.
• Heading into the Championship, Beilsmith could climb up the all-time list needing just five hits to jump into the top 25.

 

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